What We Are Eating Wednesday....

I am late putting this up late but better late then never I say!

Monday - We had Chicken Patty Sandwiches ( everything came from the freezer)

Tuesday - Nachos ( I made 3 lbs taco meat which I already had and use some and froze the rest for future dinners) every thing we already had for this. Refried beans came from freezer from a prior dinner.

Wednesday - Baked Pasta and Salad. The Salad is leftover from Sunday night's dinner and my lunches this week.  Pasta sauce from the freezer.  Noodles from pantry

Thursday - Crockpot Beef and Broccoli - Beef is part of a roast I cut up last week and froze to use for this meal.  Broccoli is from freezer. Rice from the pantry

Friday - Snack night

Saturday - leftovers

Sunday - I have not plan for this yet......

What We Are Eating This Week

Monday - Gyros ( kit from Aldi) and Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Tuesday- Leftover Taco Bake from last Tuesday.  ( I put half of it in the freezer.  A 9x13 pan will feed us 2 dinners and my husband 1 lunch)

Wednesday- Leftover Hamburgers and Hotdogs from Saturday. ( We had the kids all here to color Easter eggs and had a cookout. We planned leftovers to use this week)

Thursday - Italian Beef Sandwiches. ( roast from freezer and buns leftover from Saturday)

Friday - We will be out of town so we will eat out

Saturday - Crescent Roll Pizza ring ( new recipe we are trying.  Pizza sauce is homemade and from the freezer)

Sunday- Easter and we are going to my sisters.  I need to think of what I am going to bring. Probably Fruit Salad and something else.

I am going to try to start posting my menu's more often and share if I had to purchase the items or if they were in my pantry or stockpile.

Menu Sept 1 - 5

Monday- Pork Chops, grilled zucchini and baked potatoes

Tuesday- Pizza Burgers and salad

Wednesday - Crockpot sausage, peppers, onions, mushrooms and potatoes

Thursday - Nachoes

Friday- Snack night

We typically wing it for Saturday and Sunday :)

Menu Plan August 25-29

Monday - Cabbage Skillet and Green Beans

Tuesday - Vegettini Zucchini Noodles w/ Garlic Butter Sauce and Salad

Wednesday - Quasidillas with Refried Beans

Thursday- Pizza Pasta Bake and Salad

Friday- Snack Night

I am trying to simplify my life a little bit since we are going on our second week back to school/ work. Menu planning is one of the very easiest ways for me to stay on budget and make meal times easier.

Looks like it should be a good week :)

Inexpensive Meal-Beef Orzo Skillet

The other night we had this Beef Orzo Skillet for dinner. The cost of this meal was about $4.57.

 

Here is the breakdown:

 

Ground beef: $1.99 lb ( bought on sale at Kroger)

1 cup Orzo Pasta - $ .64

1 can diced Tomatoes - $.59

About 2 cups chopped Spinach - $.85

Minced Garlic and Italian Seasoning - around $.50

Chicken Broth - Free saved from cooking chicken in the crock pot from a different meal

 

Yum yum!  Not only was this an inexpensive meal but it tasted great too!

 

 

 

 

The Grocery Budget

For the last several months I have tried to cut our $400 a month grocery budget.

Ideally I would love to shave $100 off of it a month. 

 For the most part we are now feeding only 3 people on a regularly.  

Occasionally there are 4 of us but not to often.

I am hoping to start posting about some of the cheaper meals we have been eating.  We will see :)  

Over July 4th I made a pasta salad which had about 10 serving to it.  We ate 5 serving on July 4.  I mentioned in my last post about finding pasta on sale at Kroger for 50 cents a box if you buy 6.  I bought 12 and might go back for more :)

Anyway, last night we ate the leftover pasta salad which we had approximately 5 servings of.  We added 1 pound of grilled chicken breast to it.  

Here it is:

Here is the cost break down of the original pasta salad 

Pasta : 75 cents ( I used a box in half)

Carrot : .07 cents ( I used 1 which I shredded)

Green Pepper: 56 cents ( I used 1 diced)

Black Olives: 50 cents ( I used half a can which come whole and I sliced)

Caesar Dressing 85 cents ( I used half a bottle)  = $2.73 or about 27 cents per serving.

5 servings of leftover pasta salad - $1.35 + chicken breast I bought for $1.35/ a LB = $2.70 for dinner :)

*Note: For the pasta salad I used things I had on hand and other then the pasta which I bought at Kroger every thing else was purchased at Aldi

Chicken Breast - I posted about this deal here and I got it at GFS.

Meal Plan Feb 10-16

I had planned to post my meal plan yesterday but then got busy.

Monday - leftovers. What we didn't eat has been turned into lunches for my husband for the week :)

Tuesday- Lasagna Toss and Salad

Wednesday- We usually have some sort of crockpot meal but I am at a loss as to what we will have.  I will update this when I think of something :(

Thursday - Taco Ring ( Kid# 1, daughter in law and grandson will be joining us)

Friday- dinner out

Saturday- dinner out

Sunday- Roasted chicken, Potato and Salad

Meal Plan Feb 3-7

I am going to try to be better about posting our meal plans for the week.  Oh and just making a plan in general would be most helpful to me lol :)

Monday- Chicken Sanwiches ( baked chicken breast and buns brought home from work.  Anything I bring home from work we are just saving from the garbage at the end of the day), Salad

Tuesday- Chicken and Noodles ( from the freezer), Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans

Wednesday - Crockpot Ranch Porkchops, Broccolli/Cheese Sauce, Rice

Thursday - Pizza Pasta Bake ( from freezer), Salad

Friday- Snack Night

Saturday- Leftovers

Sunday - ?? no idea yet :)

Day 8-13 of Low/No Spend Challenege

I have not been keeping up with posting my updates as well as I would like.  But here is a recap of the last several days :)

Day 8 : I went to work and I drove my daughter to piano lessons.  All planned.  I even wondered around in Goodwill while my daughter was in piano lessons and did not buy a thing!  - No spend day #3 :)

For dinner we had pizza soup and used up leftover pizza sauce and the rest of the pizza toppings from our family Christmas celebration last Saturday.

Day 9: I went to work then later in the evening I took Kid # 5 to a meeting about the school play.  Other then that I didn't spend any money anywhere - No spend day # 4

I can't remember what we had for dinner :(  I will update this when I remember lol!

Day 10:  Was another day I just went to work and then came home.  No spend day # 5 :)

For dinner we usually have snacks on Friday's.  I made a pizza dip using up the last of the pizza sauce!  Woohoo for no waste.  We had other random snack items, cheese and crackers etc.

Day 11: My husband's band played out this night so money was spent.  I have to admit I was not good at keeping track and estimate I spent about $30.  I also seem to be missing what is left of the money I had recieved for Christmas....ugh ugh ugh! I know better then to take a lot of cash with me when I go out like that. Lesson learned there.  I am not counting the missing money as part of my spending since it was "free" money and not out of our budget but still it sucks!

We did eat dinner before we left the house.  We ate leftovers.

Day 12: Hubby ran to the store for some items we were out of.  He spent $32.56.  He made some pancakes for breakfast on Sunday and we had leftovers to add to the freezer so that Kid # 5 can eat them during the school week.

For dinner we ate Super Gyros. $25.56.  We had went to a visitation for a friend whose 4 year old son died of cancer this last week.  We stood in the recieving line for over 2 hours.  It was heart breaking!  So getting take out seemed like a good idea!

Day 13:  I did a lot of running Kid # 5 around.  I also bought Kid # 3 a book for school off facebook but she paid me back so no money really is out of pocket for me.  No spend day # 6.

For dinner we had the last of the baked ravioli, salad, bread and I ate my leftover gyro.

Total spent on groceries so far : $ 104.11

Total spent on random stuff and eating out: 71.56  ( I am not going to count Christmas money spent or gift cards those are things not taken from our budget. Nor would we have bought anything if we didn't have the gift cards or Christmas funds to spend)

Our next pay day is Thursday.  I budget my groceries every two weeks.  Right now I have $95.89 left from the first two weeks of the month.  My goal was to save $100!  I think I am on target :)

Day 3-7 & Weekly Update

                                     

Sorry about the lack of updating.  Seems the days got away from me.  Here is how the later part of my week has went as far as spending goes.

Day 3 - I made a run to Aldi and got the groceries we needed.  I spent $54.58.  For dinner we had snacks leftover from New Years Eve.

Day 4- I bought a pair of curtains for Kid #5's room from a facebook group.  I spent $16 on them.  I am as the moment doing a make over on them which I will post about later this week.  We are slowly making some changes in her room.  I hope to sell her current curtains on facebook and make my money back.  I will let you know if that happens.

I also bought some soda and spent $5 for that.  Normally we do not buy soda but Saturday was our last family Christmas celebration and we had homemade pizza.  They seem to go together :)

Day 5 - I did not leave the house and it was a no spend day! Woohoo! 

For dinner we had fried potatoes with leftover green pepper & onion from the pizza and the last of the ham.

Day 6- I did not leave the house but hubby did so while he was out I asked him to get me some Woodchuck to enjoy on my snow day :)  He also grabbed some navy beans so he can make ham n beans from our hambone. -$11.97. For dinner we had chicken stir fry from the freezer

Day 7- I have not left the house and I had no spending! Woohoo! 

For dinner tonight we had baked ravioli with homemade spaghetti sauce leftover from another meal we had not long ago and a salad.

So total grocery spending for the week is $71.55

Personal spending for myself $16 + $7.95 out of my Christmas money from Day 2

2/10 - No Spend days so far!

Not to bad for my first week.  Tomorrow it is back to work and school for me and the kids after 18 days off.  I am not really looking forward to it!

Day 1 & 2

I have decided to try and track all my spending for the month here on the blog.  That way hopefully it will help to hold me accountable.

Yesterday I spent $40 to put gas in my car.  That was my only spending and it was budgeted for.  

For dinner we had this chicken spaghetti and green beans.  I didn't have the pimentos so I used shredded carrots instead.  Otherwise I had all of the ingredients.

Today I took Kid # 3,4 and 5 to the mall to spend gift cards and Christmas money they had recieved.  I bought a purse at JCPenny using a gift card and $7.95 of my own Christmas money that I had also recieved.  So no money out of my household budget.  Also we were good and ate before we went and did not get any treats there.  I then came home and made grilled ham and cheese sandwiches using leftover ham and buns that we had.  We had some other leftovers out of the frig too.  It was a good dinner.

I had hoped to participate in Sharon's fiscal fast for this week.  However since we are still on break from school/work and I am hosting the last family Christmas celebration here on Saturday, I just can't swing it this week.  I do plan to start mine on Monday, January 6 when we are all back to a normal schedule.

We worked on cleaning Kid # 5's room and getting it organized today also.  I got all the bedding changed and washed, now I just need to clean out the closet :(

Tomorrow I plan to work on the budget and finish our food inventory.

September No/Low Spend Challege Week #2

Well I am little late with update, it has been a crazy week around here.  We still are having relatives stay with us on and off each week.  Which makes life kind of hectic.

If you have missed this, I am participating in Carla's, September No-Low Spend Challenge.

Anyway, on to my challenge, if you missed my plan for the month you can find it here.  You can find my first weeks update here. 

My first goal was to pay cash for our weekend trip, which is actually this weekend.  My goal was to save $600 cash for this trip.  I have deposited both of my paychecks into my "mom" account and also transferred the savings from having our cable shut off.  This goal is now complete.  Go me!!

Next up is the grocery budget.  I am hoping to bump out ER fund up to $1200 and use our grocery budget to do it with.  Plus any other extra saving we can manage.  Our normal grocery budget is $400 a month. I planned out our menu for the whole month of September which you can find here.  This has helped so much even with feeding extra people all month!  Right now I have spent $191.19. I have a few items I need to pick up but so far so good.  The monthly menu plan has sure helped!  I have had some reimbursement for some Dr bills we have had so our saving is sitting at $1074.44 right now.  So hopefully by the end of the month I will reach this goal too :)

I can not stress enough how much having a plan has helped!

Menu For September

As part of my goals for September's Low/No Spend Challenge I made a menu for the whole month in hopes that it will help us cut our grocery bill.  My goal is to cut our budget by $150.  This would help us to increase our ER fund.

I have planned dinners before for a month at a time and wrote about my process here.

I only plan dinners and side dishes.  My husband takes leftovers for his lunches at work.  We always have sandwich items and easy breakfast items.  I also always have pantry items such as flour, sugar, oatmeal etc.... Also every Friday we have "snack night and usually make appetizer type items to eat.

Here is my list

1. Grilled chicken, brown rice and salad
2. Hamburgers, buns, chips and coleslaw
3. Meatball subs, ( crock pot freezer item) buns, chips and  cut up veggies
4. Balsamic chicken -( crock pot freezer item), rice, salad
5. French toast, sausage links, eggs
6. Snack Night

7. Hot dogs, buns, pork n beans, cut up veggies
8. Spare ribs, BBQ sauce, baked potato, green beans
9. Fajitas
10. Hash brown pork skillet ( new pinterest recipe)
11. BBQ chicken sandwiches, buns, chips
12. Crispy Chicken Wraps ( new pinterest recipe)
13. Snack night

14. Pepperoni Tortellini Pasta Salad
15. Sausage, potato, mushroom, onion, green pepper foil packs
16. Taco Salad
17. Lasagna Skillet meal, green beans, salad
18. Teriyaki Chicken and Rice ( crock pot freezer items also new pinterest recipe)
19. Leftovers
20. Vacation to Michigan

21. Vacation to Michigan
22. Vacation to Michigan
23. Pork Loin, salad, mashed potatoes
24. Sub Sandwiches, chips, cut up veggies
25. Chicken Alfredo, noodles, Salad ( crock pot freezer item)
26. Goulash, green beans
27. Kid # 5 and I will be out of town, will leave things for hubby

28. Kid # 5 and I out of town, will leave things for hubby
29. Fish, rice, salad

So there is my menu in a nutshell.  I am hoping to only spend $250 on groceries for the month.  So far, I have spent $100.  So that leaves me $150 to go.  My biggest shopping trip will be Aldi.  I have my list all ready and have estimated I will spend about $100 there. 

Wish me luck :)

October Dinner Menu

The once a month planning of the dinner menu has been going so well that I did it again for October.  One of the main things I have figured out for this month is that I am planning to many dinners and we are not getting to them all in a month.  So for this month I decided to plan only 20 meals instead of 24.  I will keep adjusting as need be until I find the right number for us each month.  I also found that it is helpful to try  and plan snacks and side dishes too.  I created my own printable to put in my home management binder under the planner section.  This really made the planning much easier.  Every Friday I now have decided will be leftover nights.  We are usually busy on Friday's so this will help alot.

Anyway, here are our dinners for October

1. Leftover chili, sandwiches and salad
2. Lasagna and salad
3. Crock pot Cheesy Rice Chicken and Salad - this is a new crock pot recipe I am trying
4. Mexican Pasta Skillet and corn
5. Leftover Sloppy Joe's from the freezer and seasoned fries
6. Homemade Pizza
7. Pork Loin, baked potatoes and green beans
8. Tomato Soup and grilled cheese sandwiches
9. Goulash and green beans
10. Tacos
11. Perogies with peppers and onions, salad
12. Stir Fry with rice
13. Leftover meatball subs from the freezer, chips
14. Pizza soup, bread and salad
15. Fajitas from a leftover roast in freezer, peppers and onions
16. Fish, rice and green beans
17. Lasagna skillet and corn
18. Stuffed green pepper soup and bread
19 Taco Ring
20 Sub sandwiches, chips and salsa

So far I have done a majority of the grocery shopping for this month.  My total so far is $211.15.  Not to shabby I don't think.  I do have a few items to get at Walmart still which I have not done yet.  I'll update on how this is going again later in the month.

List of Things I No Longer Buy Premade

1. Frozen waffles

2. Pancake/waffle mix

3. Syrup

4. Most soups.  I do still buy Tomato soup though cause I just haven't found a homemade version I like better.

5. Bisquick Baking Mix

6. Taco Seasoning Mix

7. French Dressing

8. Ranch Dressing

9. Biscuits

10. BBQ Sauce

11. Granola

12.  Frozen Pizza

13. Pizza Sauce

14. Spaghetti Sauce

15. Rice packets ( like the Lipton Rice ones you buy at the store)

16. Cream Soups

17. Italian dressing

18. Sloppy Joe sauce

19. Coffee Cakes

20. Muffins - I never buy the box mixes for these anymore.  They are so easy to just make from scratch

Update on our August Dinner Menu

I realized recently that I had not been keeping up with my posts about our August dinner menu.  So far it is going well and I updated the list of dinners we have used so far.  I actually think we will have a few of the dinners left at the end of the month. 

I have a small list of items that I need to go to the grocery store for.  We have also purchased a few things in the last few weeks so I have about $65 left of the $200 I was hoping to spend this month.   We will be hosting a big family breakfast on Sunday with most of the kids and my in laws who are here visiting for a few weeks.  I am not sure if I will be able to purchase everything I want to and keep under budget.  We will just have to see how it goes.

Usually for a month my budget is $400 to spend on groceries and personal care items.  This week Kroger has some really good sales on meat so I plan to take $50 or so of the $200 I am saving and stock up on meat for my freezer.

I'll let you all know how the shopping goes :)

What About Breakfast, Lunch and Snacks???

If you read my August dinner menu post then you know I planned out our main course to have at dinner time for the whole month of August.  You would also know that I have only spent about $124 for August so far at the grocery store. 

I thought I would do a post about what else we are eating during the day.  After all it is summer and I do have Kid #3 and Kid# 5 to feed on a daily bases.  Then I have also had Kid #4 here for part of the summer.  Plus there always seems like there are extra kids here to feed at least once or twice a week.

Anyway, Kid # 5 is the main breakfast eater.  Today she had leftover pancakes that we bought home from when we went to dinner at Cracker Barrel and a glass of milk.  Sunday I made Cinnamon Roll Cake which I originally found on Pinterest.  We had this for breakfast 3 days this week.  She has also had bagels with cream cheese.

As for lunches, we often eat leftovers.  I also have chicken nuggets on hand but Kid # 5 loves then so much I had to set a limit to only having them once a week.  One can of tomato soup has made 3 lunches for her.  We have also had sandwich items and grilled cheese. 

As I type this Kid # 5 has just come in and asked if she can have Ramen for lunch lol :)  With this we will have grapes that I bought on sale. 

As you can see our breakfasts and lunches usually consist of easy items and dinner is our big meal of the day.  Once a week on Sunday I make what I like to call " Sunday Family Brunch" and we have a big breakfast.

We have cheese and crackers, cereal bars, peanuts and we have been eating the last of the girl scout cookies also to eat for snacks.  I also have on hand all the ingredients to make brownies and cookies.  We also have bananas, apples and grapes.  The kids ate on a big jar of applesauce for several day this week too.  My husband has also made homemade salsa a couple of times this week and I do have tortilla chips on hand to eat with it.

We are definitely not going hungry :)

August Dinner Menu Plan

Earlier this week I cleaned out our deep freeze and refrigerator.  I used this time to make a menu plan for the entire month of August. Some of the meals I had all the ingredients for and others I just needed a few items.  My goal was to see if I could stay under $200 for the dinners for the whole month.  I planned 24 dinners, with 5 leftover nights and 2 eating out nights.  Here is my list of the 24 main courses

1. Stir Fry*
2. Country Style Pork Ribs*
3. Hot dogs on Grill*
4. Sloppy Lentil Sandwiches
5.Tostadas
6. Roasted Whole Chicken*
7. Chicken and Noodles*
8. Grilled Pork Loin*
9. Grilled Fish*
10. Quasadilla
11. Sub Sandwiches
12. Chicken Alfredo
13. Hamburgers
14. Breakfast for dinner
15. Chicken Taco Bowls*
16. Porgies*
17. French Bread Pizzas
18. Cheesy Chicken Bacon and Tator Tot Bake -crock pot meal*
19. Mexican Chicken - crock pot meal*
20. Ranch Pork Chops - crock pot meal*
21. Hawaiian Sweet roll sandwiches
22. Zucchini, Black Bean and Rice Skillet
23. Taco Salad
24. Fajitas

The meals with the stars by them are the ones I found in my pantry, refrigerator, freezer already.  Everything else I needed at least one item to complete the dishes.  My total for the grocery shop to complete all these meals was $123.29. This also included some breakfast and snack items plus some condiments and milk etc.  I will probably have to go back in a couple a weeks to replenish our milk and fresh produce but I don't think that will be more then $50 or so. 

I will also try to post and update on what else I serve with each meal to complete them. We have alot of things in our pantry etc to complete these meals.

As you can see we have already had two of the meals this week. The Zucchini Skillet was our complete meal and was a new recipe that went over well. We will probably have it again sometime.  The Tostada meal was made with refried beans and cheese.  I then served it with sour cream, salsa, lettuce, tomato and black olives. This is a meal we have often and Kid # 5 really likes :)

What's For Dinner This Week

Monday - Tacos

Tuesday - Goulash and Salad

Wednesday - Tostadas

Thursday - Crock pot Balsamic Chicken, Green Beans,  Potato

Friday - Leftovers

Saturday - ???

Sunday - Coffee Cake for Sunday Family Brunch, and Sandwiches later

Whats for Dinner 3/5-3/11

Monday- Chicken Taco Bowls

Tuesday - Pepperoni Roll

Wednesday - Spicy Chicken Stew

Thursday - Crock pot Ravioli

Friday - Leftovers

Saturday -????

Sunday - ???

Well as you can see I have no idea what we will be having by the weekend.  But hopefully I will come up with something soon :)